Finding and Replacing Information

Using Quattro Pro's Find and Replace feature, you can easily make adjustments to a spreadsheet. Suppose, for example, that somebody other than you set up a fairly lengthy spreadsheet for you using handwritten sheets. Now, I don't know about you, but my handwriting skills have definitely deteriorated over the years because I use a keyboard so often. So, I would expect mistakes from some poor soul using handwritten sheets that I supplied. And, those mistakes might even be fairly consistent. Suppose, for example, that the data entry person typed the name "Tomkow," as you see in Figure 5.9, when I actually wrote "Tomkin" on the handwritten sheets (not that you'd ever be able to prove it). In a case like this, the mistake is easily fixed.

Figure 5.9. You can easily change the spelling of a consistently misspelled word using the Find and Replace feature.

Open the Edit menu and click Find and Replace. Quattro Pro displays the Find and Replace window shown in Figure 5.10.

Figure 5.10. Use the Find and Replace window to correct spelling.

In the Find box, type the misspelled word. In the Replace box, type the correct spelling for the word. Then, click the Replace All button. When you click Close, you can see that Quattro Pro changed each occurrence of the word you typed in the Find box with the word you typed in the Replace box (see Figure 5.11).

Figure 5.11. Quattro Pro changes the spreadsheet based on the settings in the Find and Replace window.

Some interesting notes about finding and replacing:

• Quattro Pro finds and replaces from the position of the cell selector, so to search the entire spreadsheet, press the Home key to place the cell selector in Cell A1.

• You can limit the search to a selection of cells using the Range Picker button in the Cells box of the Find and Replace window.

• Using the options in the Look In section, you can tell Quattro Pro to find and replace information in formulas or values. In the context of finding and replacing information, "value" doesn't mean "number;" it means "cell contents."

• If you select the Condition option in the Look In section, you cannot replace but you can search based on a condition. For example, you can search for values greater than $500. To use the Condition option, type a question mark (?) followed by a condition in the Find box; in my example, you'd type ?>500.

• If you check the Columns First box, Quattro Pro searches down columns before searching across rows.

• If you check the Match Whole box, Quattro Pro finds only exact matches to the contents of the Find box.

• If you check the Case Sensitive box, Quattro Pro uses the capitalization in the Find box when searching. For example, if you check the Case Sensitive box and then search for Jones, Quattro Pro will not find jones during the search.

Tip

You might find it handy to copy the misspelled word before opening the Find and Replace box so that you can paste the exact misspelling into the box. You can use hotkey combinations like Ctrl+C to copy the misspelling and Ctrl+V to paste the misspelling into the Find box.